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Technology Adoption, RemoteWorking, WorkFromHome, Digital Adoption | 2 min read

Now that everyone is suddenly working from home, technology adoption is more important than ever before.  But just what is ‘technology adoption’? Technology adoption is defined as the acceptance, integration, and use of new technology within an organization (or society).  Why are technology adoption services suddenly some of the most demanded services of 2020?  Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, public and private sector companies worldwide found themselves asking employees to work from home. This shift in the operating model was especially stressful for IT units who have had to cope with a series of new responsibilities and challenges. These include: Ensuring employees, partners, and sometimes customers, have adequate remote access to organizational systems and software.  Ensuring systems being accessed remotely are secure and available (no downtime).  Ensuring employees have the right software, and hardware, to access systems from their homes.  Ensuring they actually know how to access these systems and use them. In addition to the above, and perhaps most importantly, the burden of trying to make sure people are ‘productive’ on the job suddenly shifted from HR teams to IT teams, with senior management and employees looking to their IT people to make everyone ‘remote-work ready’. What makes an organization ‘remote-work ready’? There are several answers to that question, but the most obvious are:  The right machines (hardware) The right systems (software) An internet connection The ability to use the aforementioned hardware and software.  This is where technology adoption comes into play. Having the right machines and systems means little if employees are unable to use them remotely or do not even know they exist. Which then brings us to the question, how do you enable employees to use new systems remotely? Traditional technology adoption is no longer an option - you cannot put them all in a room and train them.  Remote technology enablement needs five elements to be truly effective:  Awareness: Users need to know the technology is there and available. There needs to be a channel available where employees know they can find information about the technologies, when they were launched, where to locate them, and why they need to be used.  Training: This needs to be online training, but it also needs to be flexible. Remote working means that you no longer have control over employee schedules as remote workers may be a continent or several time zones away.  Learning materials: Remote employees need to be able to access learning materials on demand in the form of documents, videos, tutorials, etc. in a convenient library. Support: Support is vital for anyone working remotely. Support should be in the form of should be in the form of immediate support if possible, through chat bot or live agent, as well as less immediate support in the form of tickets for non-urgent matters.  The elements above cover the technology users needs throughout the technology adoption lifecycle.  If you don’t have those elements in place, what is likely to happen?  The best case scenario is that employees working remotely will struggle daily with trying to understand the new operating model and adjust to the new technologies required for business continuity. This may result in several hours of productivity wasted daily, and a lot of frustration.  The worst case scenario is a complete halt to business continuity with key people unable to access the systems they need, and IT overwhelmed with support incidents and complaints.  In Part 2, I will discuss how organizations can put together a quick technology adoption solution. 

Part 1: Technology Adoption  and the Remote Work Experience

Written by Nihal Salem
Apr 9, 2020 1:48:37 PM
Written by Nihal Salem

Now that everyone is suddenly working from home, technology adoption is more important than ever before. 

But just what is ‘technology adoption’? Technology adoption is defined as the acceptance, integration, and use of new technology within an organization (or society). 

Why are technology adoption services suddenly some of the most demanded services of 2020? 

Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, public and private sector companies worldwide found themselves asking employees to work from home. This shift in the operating model was especially stressful for IT units who have had to cope with a series of new responsibilities and challenges. These include:

  • Ensuring employees, partners, and sometimes customers, have adequate remote access to organizational systems and software. 
  • Ensuring systems being accessed remotely are secure and available (no downtime). 
  • Ensuring employees have the right software, and hardware, to access systems from their homes. 
  • Ensuring they actually know how to access these systems and use them.

In addition to the above, and perhaps most importantly, the burden of trying to make sure people are ‘productive’ on the job suddenly shifted from HR teams to IT teams, with senior management and employees looking to their IT people to make everyone ‘remote-work ready’.

What makes an organization ‘remote-work ready’? There are several answers to that question, but the most obvious are: 

  • The right machines (hardware)
  • The right systems (software)
  • An internet connection
  • The ability to use the aforementioned hardware and software. 

This is where technology adoption comes into play. Having the right machines and systems means little if employees are unable to use them remotely or do not even know they exist. Which then brings us to the question, how do you enable employees to use new systems remotely? Traditional technology adoption is no longer an option - you cannot put them all in a room and train them. 

Elements of Digital Adoption

Remote technology enablement needs five elements to be truly effective: 

  • Awareness: Users need to know the technology is there and available. There needs to be a channel available where employees know they can find information about the technologies, when they were launched, where to locate them, and why they need to be used. 
  • Training: This needs to be online training, but it also needs to be flexible. Remote working means that you no longer have control over employee schedules as remote workers may be a continent or several time zones away. 
  • Learning materials: Remote employees need to be able to access learning materials on demand
     in the form of documents, videos, tutorials, etc. in a convenient library.
  • Support: Support is vital for anyone working remotely. Support should be in the form of should be in the form of immediate support if possible, through chat bot or live agent, as well as less immediate support in the form of tickets for non-urgent matters. 

The elements above cover the technology users needs throughout the technology adoption lifecycle. 

If you don’t have those elements in place, what is likely to happen? 

The best case scenario is that employees working remotely will struggle daily with trying to understand the new operating model and adjust to the new technologies required for business continuity. This may result in several hours of productivity wasted daily, and a lot of frustration.  The worst case scenario is a complete halt to business continuity with key people unable to access the systems they need, and IT overwhelmed with support incidents and complaints. 

In Part 2, I will discuss how organizations can put together a quick technology adoption solution. 

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Originally published Apr 9, 2020 1:48:37 PM, updated April 15, 2020

Topics: Technology Adoption RemoteWorking WorkFromHome Digital Adoption

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How to be Innovative in Your Innovation

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While all organizations realize the power of digital transformation, it is necessary to realize that the first step of digitalization lies in ideation & innovation, also known as ‘Ibtikar’.

Developing digital business models requires developing ideas and bringing them to life by identifying hidden challenges, approaching them from different angles, and developing detailed solutions for them that could result in business opportunities. This requires a special one-stop-shop portal that can handle hosting content, submission of ideas, assessment of ideas by a panel based on specific criteria, and putting those ideas into execution.

Young thoughtful handsome man in casual thinking over the ideas

While that may sound appealing in theory, the execution of this entire process presents a number of challenges. Apart from the fact that literally the entire world has come to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, here are some challenges that may interrupt organizations that want to implement an Ideation & Innovation initiative:

  1. Cost

           With everything going on in the world right now, every organization is worried about matching expenses with their circumstance-generated revenues that have fallen way below their normal. This means that they cannot afford recruiting IT service providers to create a full platform to host their ideation initiatives. Creating new platforms will be time consuming, costly, and may require a huge investment in resources to manage it and provide upkeep services.

  2. Loss of Important Information

           As a response to the huge investment that they THINK is required to host an ideation initiative, organizations may opt to implement ideation using ‘traditional’ methods. This means encouraging their employees to submit their ideas via email, WhatsApp, Facebook groups, etc. Where’s the problem in that? For starters, those platforms do not have specific purposes, meaning they are used for a multitude of reasons, including personal ones. This most definitely will make the process of keeping up very difficult as ideas get lost in the traffic of other unrelated messages. This will also lead to major distraction as employees are bombarded with messages for other items that may lead to a disruption in their ideation processes. The lack of a centralized announcement channel to reach intended audiences will lead to confusion, uncertainty, and disruption in ideation.

  3. Lack of Clarity on the status of submissions

           This challenge goes hand in hand with the one above. If your employees are not using a specific platform for their ideation & innovation submission process, there will be lack of clarity when it comes to how to submit ideas, what topics of ideas are required, how to list them, how to submit them, the status of their approval, and the execution of approved ideas. 

So, what’s the solution?

Keeping all of the above in mind, we knew we had to move fast and create a platform that will cater to these organizations’ needs. StemeXe for Ibtikar harbors employee collaboration and gives employees the chance to engage with the company to uncover new opportunities for the business and co-create ideas to bring them to life.

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With StemeXe for Ibtikar, we've brought together all the elements required for a successful ideation process that accompanies an idea from document to real life in one app:

  • Announcements to direct attention to intended audience about ideas through one centralized announcement channel within the platform.

  • Submission and tracking of ideas through the app. The platform has an automated requests section that allows employees to follow step by step processes to submit their ideas while tracking the status of their approval/rejection process & uncovering the reasons of the same.

  • Access to digital library and content regarding guidelines and acceptance criteria for different categories of ideas & innovation through a digital library within the platform with unlimited number of topics.

  • Timely support through chat

Does this sound like something you’ve been looking for and you want to know more about it? Let us help you Innovate in your Innovation.

Contact Us

Let the brainstorming begin!

6 Tips to Stay Productive while Working Remotely

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Working remotely is not a new concept, at least for some employees, who must have practiced it at least once in a while. However, with the recent state of COVID-19, many companies have instructed their employees to start working remotely until further notice. This unexpected extended duration has imposed challenges for some employees, especially the ones trying to work from home for the first time.

As employees, most of us are kept focused on work while at the office because of external conditions that restrict our freedom or levels of distraction. For example, attendance systems force the start and end of our work day, meetings force us to be available on certain schedules, sitting on our desks limit our involvement with non-work-related activities, and finally, seeing our managers around, watching us, keeps our distractions to the minimum.

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Missing those conditions while working from home might leave many employees vulnerable to distractions and unable to maintain the required levels of productivity and dedication to work. Although conditions of work at home differ from one employee to another, there are a few tips that could generally help overcoming low productivity and increase concentration and dedication to work.

Tip 1- Go to Work, even if You Are at Home

To set your brain to the work mode, adhere to some practices that will help you feel you have actually gone to work. For example, don’t just wake up, open your laptop and start working, as this will keep you in the sleeping mode and may get you to fall asleep again very quickly. Make sure you get out of bed, change your pajamas, have your coffee, check out your social media, etc. Just do anything you were used to do as a routine before going to work.

Tip 2- List Your Tasks

Even if you are performing the daily routine work tasks, make sure you have them listed clearly instead of just having them in your head. Being able to see your tasks and crossing them off will give you a sense of achievement, and let you know that you are making progress. This will help you stay more organized, productive and motivated to work.

Tip 3- Plan Your Day

A planned day is always a more effective one. Ensure your calendar is fully booked with all your meetings and tasks. You can as well include your breaks and home-related chores that you will need to attend to during the day. This will help you stay focused on completing all the planned tasks within their allotted time and will minimize interruptions and wasted time in between. Once you’ve set your schedule, share it with your team mates. This will help them know what you are working on, when you are reachable for a call, available for a meeting or blocked out for some personal matters.

Tip 4- Avoid Distractions

Distractions are the most common direct causes of reduced productivity when working at home. Typically, when working at home, it is very easy to get distracted by a crying child, a favorite TV show, a basket full of laundry or a comfortable bed calling for a nap. To keep your brain in the right mode, avoid, or at least minimize distractions around you. For example, don’t work in the kitchen if you think you will be distracted by a sink full of dishes calling you to wash them! If possible, try to find yourself a dedicated workspace. This will help your brain recognize that this is the place where you will work productively. It will also help family members understand that you should not be interrupted while in that area because you are doing some work.

Tip 5- Stay Connected with Your Coworkers

One of challenges most remote-workers face is the social isolation. Although social interaction in the office might be distracting sometimes, it is still one of the most important factors of keeping everyone motivated and engaged. While working from home, make sure to establish or maintain the connection with your coworkers by setting more frequent video calls, arranging some online activities on break times, or simply picking up the phone to check on some one.

Tip 6- Take Regular Breaks

By breaks, we don’t mean checking your WhatsApp or Instagram, or navigating the web to read some news. To stay productive, you need to take an actual break by getting up and moving away from your laptop or desk. Have a chat with a family member, go to the kitchen to grab a snack or just stand by the window for some fresh air. Taking breaks while working from home is very important, especially if you have little interruptions at home since you might find yourself have worked continuously for extended hours without any break, which will be very exhausting and demotivating on the long run.

Having read this, which of those tips do you already apply, and what other tips are you following that help you stay productive while working from home?

Share your feedback with us. We’ll be happy to hear from you.

Maintain Operations during Remote Working

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Business continuity has become every organization’s top priority with the recent escalation of the Covid-19 situation. Everyone is consumed with the possibility that they might not be able to sustain operations after orders to work from home have been officially circulated. Survival is on everyone’s agenda, and to survive, you need to diminish any contingencies that may affect operations.

Employees are every business’s most important asset. If your employees are not able to perform jobs or submit requests that require a chain of approvals, you might be heading down a dark road of less productivity, slow operations, no achievement, and incurring losses.

 

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Among the many challenges we have seen organizations struggle with after implementing “remote working”, the biggest challenge yet has been the disruption of operations due to the absence of people to approve requests submitted by employees and to “keep processes flowing”. What happens when your approvers are physically inaccessible?

  • Processes are disrupted and come to a complete stop as approvers cannot be reached
  • Delays and confusion occur as documents are passed from one approver to another via email
  • Loss of ownership over approvals, causing a chaotic work environment

We believe we have what you need to not only survive, but to also maintain a normal pace of operations and eliminate factors that will disrupt them.

While we at Exceed did not necessarily anticipate Covid-19, we did however, anticipate a shift in operating models. We have been implementing a remote working model since 2014 when we detected patterns in where the business world was heading. To support our vision, we created numerous solutions that will sustain our remote working model, one of which is the Enterprise Submission Platform a.k.a ESP for Employee Service Catalogue & Digital Approvals.  

ESP is a process automation system that empowers business users to create and manage their processes, without having to rely on IT staff to get the job done. As it is easy to use with little to no training, this reduces the time needed to go live and the cost required to maintain and manage the system. This model will make the process of approving employee requests while working remotely much easier to control, track, and manage.

 

How exactly will it solve remote working challenges?

Step 1:

We will help you map your old traditional approval processes on the system

Step 2:

We will train your business users on how to use the system and create processes, remotely

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We will support you in creating new processes that meet the demands of remote working

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Our focus with ESP is to provide you with a business process automation solution that can automate all your processes that are currently handled manually and that require approvals, to help alleviate any remote working costs that your business will take on.

While we maintain our promise listed above, we understand that customers may have some underlying questions regarding the solution and so we’ve compiled what we anticipate would be the most common ones:

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For more information on ESP, feel free to contact us here.

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